INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY

Energy conservation in buildings and

community systems programme

Technical Note AIVC 60

Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for
Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre

Operating Agent and Management
INIVE EEIG
Boulevard Poincaré 79
B-1060 Brussels
Belgium
 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY
Energy Conservation in Buildings and
Community Systems Programme

Technical Note AIVC 60

Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for

Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

M.H. Sherman

February 2006
Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

Copyright INIVE EEIG 2006

All property rights, including copyright are vested in the Operating
Agent (INIVE EEIG) on behalf of the AIVC.

In particular, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
prior written permission of the Operating Agent.

This report is part of the work of the IEA Energy Conservation in Buildings & Community Systems Programme
- Annex V Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre

M.H. Sherman (MHSherman@lbl.gov)

LBNL-56292
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
90R3083
Berkeley CA 94720

This work was supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building
Technologies Program, of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.

Special thanks to Craig Wray and Hans Phaff whose expert spreadsheet and editorial abilities enabled the many
numerical simulations that were required for the figures and plots of this paper.

Document AIC-TN60
ISBN 2-9600355-9-3

Annex V Participating Countries:

Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, and the United States of America.

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 Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre

Preface

International Energy Agency

The International Energy Agency (IEA) was established in 1974 within the framework of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to implement an International
Energy Programme. A basic aim of the IEA is to foster co-operation among the twenty-four IEA
Participating Countries to increase energy security through energy conservation, development of
alternative energy sources and energy research development and demonstration (RD&D).

Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems

The IEA sponsors research and development in a number of areas related to energy. In one of these
areas, energy conservation in buildings, the IEA is sponsoring various exercises to predict more
accurately the energy use in buildings, including comparison of existing computer programs, building
monitoring, comparison of calculation methods as well as air quality and studies of occupancy.

The Executive Committee

Overall control of the programme is maintained by an Executive Committee, which not only monitors
existing projects but also identifies new areas where collaborative effort may be beneficial.

To date the following have been initiated by the Executive Committee (completed projects are
identified by *):
1 Load Energy Determination of Buildings *
2 Ekistics and Advanced Community Energy Systems *
3 Energy Conservation in Residential Buildings *
4 Glasgow Commercial Building Monitoring *
5 Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre
6 Energy Systems and Design of Communities *
7 Local Government Energy Planning *
8 Inhabitant Behaviour with Regard to Ventilation *
9 Minimum Ventilation Rates *
10 Building HVAC Systems Simulation *
11 Energy Auditing *
12 Windows and Fenestration *
13 Energy Management in Hospitals*
14 Condensation *
15 Energy Efficiency in Schools *
16 BEMS – 1: Energy Management Procedures *
17 BEMS – 2: Evaluation and Emulation Techniques *
18 Demand Controlled Ventilation Systems *
19 Low Slope Roof Systems *
20 Air Flow Patterns within Buildings *
21 Thermal Modelling *
22 Energy Efficient communities *
23 Multizone Air Flow Modelling (COMIS)*
24 Heat Air and Moisture Transfer in Envelopes *
25 Real Time HEVAC Simulation *
26 Energy Efficient Ventilation of Large Enclosures *
27 Evaluation and Demonstration of Residential Ventilation Systems *
28 Low Energy Cooling Systems *

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Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

29 Daylight in Buildings *
30 Bringing Simulation to Application *
31 Energy Related Environmental Impact of Buildings *
32 Integral Building Envelope Performance Assessment *
33 Advanced Local Energy Planning *
34 Computer-aided Evaluation of HVAC Systems Performance *
35 Design of Energy Hybrid Ventilation (HYBVENT) *
36 Retrofitting of Educational Buildings *
36 WG Annex 36 Working Group Extension 'The Energy Concept Adviser'
37 Low Exergy Systems for Heating and Cooling of Buildings *
38 Solar Sustainable Housing *
39 High Performance Insulation systems (HiPTI) *
40 Commissioning Building HVAC Systems for Improved Energy Performance *
41 Whole Building Heat, Air and Moisture Response (MOIST-EN)
42 The Simulation of Building-Integrated Fuel Cell and Other Cogeneration Systems
(COGEN-SIM)
43 Testing and Validation of Building Energy Simulation Tools
44 Integrating Environmentally Responsive Elements in Buildings
45 Energy-Efficient Future Electric Lighting for Buildings
46 Holistic Assessment Tool-kit on Energy Efficient Retrofit Measures for Government
Buildings (EnERGo)

Annex V: Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre

The Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre was established by the Executive Committee following
unanimous agreement that more needed to be understood about the impact of air change on energy use
and indoor air quality. The purpose of the Centre is to promote an understanding of the complex
behaviour of air flow in buildings and to advance the effective application of associated energy saving
measures in both the design of new buildings and the improvement of the existing building stock.

The Participants in this task are Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, and
the United States of America.

Disclaimer
AIVC has compiled this publication with care. However, AIVC does not warrant that the information
in this publication is free of errors. No responsibility or liability can be accepted for any claims arising
through the use of the information contained within this publication. The user assumes the entire risk
of the use of any information in this publication.

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Content

ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................................................... 1
1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................ 3
1.1. BACKGROUND ..................................................................................................................................... 3
2. MATHEMATICAL DESCRIPTION......................................................................................................... 5
2.1. CRITICAL TIME .................................................................................................................................... 6
3. APPLICATIONS.......................................................................................................................................... 7
3.1. NOTCH VENTILATION .......................................................................................................................... 7
3.2. PULSE VENTILATION ........................................................................................................................... 8
4. DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................................. 10
4.1. LOW-DENSITY RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS ........................................................................................... 13
4.2. HIGH-DENSITY RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS .......................................................................................... 14
4.3. LOW-DENSITY COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS ......................................................... 15
4.4. HIGH-DENSITY COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS ........................................................ 15
4.5. ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS ...................................................................................................... 15
5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS......................................................................................................... 16
6. REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 17
APPENDIX: DEFINING EQUATIONS AND SIMPLIFIED PHYSICAL MODELING............................ 18
ZERO “OFF-CYCLE” VENTILATION ................................................................................................................ 19
NON- ZERO “OFF-CYCLE” VENTILATION ...................................................................................................... 20

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Abstract

Ventilation standards and guidelines typically treat ventilation as a constant and specify its value. In
many circumstances a designer wishes to use intermittent ventilation, rather than constant ventilation,
but there are no easy equivalencies available. This report develops a model of efficacy that allows one
to calculate how much intermittent ventilation one needs to get the same indoor air quality as a the
continuous value specified. We have found that there is a simple relationship between three
dimensionless quantities: the temporal ventilation effectiveness (which we call the efficacy), the
nominal turn-over and the under-ventilation time fraction. This relationship allows the calculation of
intermittent ventilation for a wide variety of parameters and conditions. We can use the relationship to
define a critical time that separates the regime in which ventilation variations can be averaged over
from the regime in which variable ventilation is of low effectiveness. We have found that ventilation
load-shifting, temporary protection against poor outdoor air quality and dynamic ventilation strategies
can be quite effective in low-density buildings such as single-family houses or office spaces. The
results of this work enable ventilation standards and guidelines to allow this extra flexibility and still
provide acceptable indoor air quality.

Keywords: Ventilation, Air Exchange Rate, Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation Standards

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1. Introduction
A key step in designing a building is determining the correct amount of ventilation and the optimal
system with which to provide it. There is no shortage of guidance on how much ventilation to use.
The standard of care for ventilation system design is probably the 62 series of ASHRAE standards
(62.1-2004 for non-residential buildings and 62.2-2004 for residential buildings). One can find a
variety of books and other publications with recommendations including from ASHRAE
(http://www.ashrae.org)

When ventilation rates are stated in terms of airflow rate per person or airflow rate per floor area, we
generally assume a constant airflow during the entire period of interest. There are, however, a variety
of reasons why one might want to design and operate the ventilation system with variable amounts of
ventilation airflow. For example:

• There may be periods of the day when the outdoor air quality is poor and one wishes to reduce the
amount of outdoor air entering the building;
• Economizer operation can over-ventilate a space from the point of view of indoor air quality;
energy savings can be achieved by lower ventilation rates at other times by taking account of the
over ventilation;
• Demand charges or utility peak loads may make it advantageous to reduce ventilation for certain
periods of the day; and
• Some HVAC equipment may make cyclic operation more attractive than steady-state operation
such as residential or small commercial systems that tie ventilation to heating and cooling system
operation.

Regardless of the reason, the designer or decision-maker needs a method to determine how
intermittent ventilation compares to continuous ventilation for the purposes of providing acceptable
indoor air quality. ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2004 does not directly address these issues; 62.2-2004
does address intermittent ventilation in a limited way.

The purpose of this report is to develop approaches for determining the equivalency of intermittent
ventilation based on fundamental principles, and to demonstrate these approaches using a few
representative cases of interest in both residential and non-residential buildings.

1.1. Background
Ventilation is principally used to maintain acceptable indoor air quality by controlling indoor
contaminant concentrations and minimizing occupant exposures to the contaminants. Whole-building
ventilation dilutes contaminants in the indoor air with air that does not contain those contaminants, and
is normally used for controlling unavoidable, generic or non-specific contaminants. When specific
contaminant sources can be identified, they are best dealt with directly through source control methods
including local exhaust. For example, bathroom and cooking contaminants (including water vapor) are
best addressed by exhaust fans in those spaces. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are often best
addressed by changes in composition or use of specific materials.

If ventilation rate and contaminant concentration were linearly related, the average concentration
would be proportional to the average ventilation and straightforward methods could be used to
determine the effectiveness of intermittent ventilation. Unfortunately, ventilation and concentration are
dynamically and inversely related through the mass continuity equation, which leads to a typically
non-linear relationship between ventilation and concentration.

Solutions to the continuity equation always involve an air change rate appropriate to the problem at
hand. Although we are often more accustomed to dealing with ventilation in terms of specific airflow
rates, the efficacy of intermittent ventilation will depend on the air change rate, so it is important to

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Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

keep typical rates in mind for some specific, but common occupancies. A related parameter of interest
is the time constant knows as the turn-over time, which is the inverse of the air change rate. It is the
characteristic time in which the concentration of a contaminant responds to a change in ventilation
rate.

One can derive typical air change rates and turn-over times from literature and from standards such as
ASHRAE 62 using specific ventilation rates, typical occupant densities, and typical geometry of the
space in question.

Table 1: Prototypical Air Change Rates (ACH) 1 and Turn-Over Times

Turn-
ACH over
(1/h) time (h) DESCRIPTION
0.15 6.67 Infiltration rate of new homes from 62.2 (2004)
0.25 4.00 Infiltration rate of commercial buildings from Persily (1999)
Ventilation requirement of almost empty commercial buildings from 62.1
0.3 3.33
(2004)
Office space requirement from 62.1 (2004); also large home from 62.2
0.5 2.00
(2004)
0.7 1.43 Ventilation requirement for small homes from 62.2 (2004)
1 1 Infiltration rate of older home from Sherman and Matson (1997)
2 0.50 Conference room requirement from 62.1 (2004)
4 0.25 High density space (e.g. theater lobby) from 62.1 (2004)

The inverse of the air change rates in Table 1 vary from 15 minutes to 6 hours, indicating that different
occupancies will behave quite differently at a variety of configurations. The use of such quantities to
explore the spatial dependency of ventilation is also important for large spaces, but will not be
discussed here. Sandberg and Sjoberg (1984) developed much of the nomenclature used in this field to
deal principally with spatial variation.

Sherman and Wilson (1986) followed by Yuill (1986, 1991) have already solved the continuity
equation for the general case and defined (temporal) ventilation effectiveness 2 , ε, as a measure of how
good a given, time-varying, ventilation pattern is at providing acceptable IAQ. As in those cases, we
limit our analysis to contaminants with a linear dose-response and no other loss mechanism (e.g.
sorption or deposition). ASHRAE Standard 136 (1993) uses this kind of approach to convert time-
varying envelope air leakage into an effective seasonal ventilation rate.

To ventilate intermittently, the rate of ventilation when the system is operating (or operating on
“high”) must be larger than if it were operating continuously. If there was no non-linearity problem to
contend with, we would only need to make the total number of air changes the same in the continuous
and intermittent ventilation cases. For example, if one wanted to ventilate only 8 hours per day, the
ventilation rate would need to be tripled during those 8 hours compared to what was needed in steady-
state, just to get the same number of air changes during the day.

As will be shown, it would be an unusual case if one “only” had to triple the ventilation rate to
ventilate 8 hours out of 24. The non-linearities caused by the continuity equation often require that the
ventilation rate be increased substantially above the level necessary to maintain the same total turn-
over.

1
The term “air change rate” does not discriminate between, infiltration, natural ventilation, or mechanical
ventilation. It simply denotes that air is being exchanged between indoors and outdoors—somehow.
2
We will also use the term efficacy as a synonym for (temporal) ventilation effectiveness

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2. Mathematical description
The temporal ventilation effectiveness, i.e. efficacy—ε, is the ratio of the ventilation one would need if
the rate were constant and equivalent to the actual ventilation; for our simple case it links the
equivalent (or desired) steady-state ventilation rate (Aeq), the actual (or needed) rates of over-
ventilation and under-ventilation (Ahigh and Alow) and the fraction of time that the space is under-
ventilated (flow):

Aeq
ε= (1)
flow Alow + (1 − flow ) Ahigh

If we have an independent measure of the efficacy, we can use it and Equation 1 to determine the
range of acceptable design parameters. We have developed a simplified physical expression of the
process that gives us a closed form expression for the efficacy in the appendix. Our solution is
expressed in dimensionless terms involving the efficacy and two other parameters:

1 − flow
2
Ν ⋅ coth( Ν / ε )
ε= (2)
1 − flow
2

where the nominal turn-over, Ν, is defined as follows:

( Aeq − Alow ) ⋅ Tcycle

Ν≡ (3)
2

Equation 2 is recursive; i.e. it refers to the efficacy in order to calculate the efficacy. In certain
parameter limits, the equation can be further simplified and recursion can be removed. For example, if
one were to use Equation 1 to solve for the under-ventilation-time fraction given the other parameters,
it can be solved without recursion. For the rest of the cases, however, the equation must be solved
numerically, which is what we have done.

Figure 2-1 displays the relationship between the dimensionless parameters and we can draw some
general conclusions. When the nominal turn-over is less than unity the efficacy is always high; that is,
close to unity. So, if the cycle time is short compared to the turn-over time, almost any pattern of
ventilation will work temporally efficiently. For higher air changes, the effectiveness depends
strongly on the fraction of time the space is under-ventilated. Especially for the larger under-
ventilation time fractions (e.g. 50 and 75%), the effectiveness drops to zero at some point and certain
combinations are simply not possible (i.e. one cannot always find an on-cycle air change rate that can
be used intermittently to provide ventilation equivalent to the continuous ventilation case).

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Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

Efficacy for Different Under-Ventilation Fractions

1.00

0.90

0.80
Ventilation Effectiveness (-)

0.70

0.60
25%
0.50
50%
0.40 75%

0.30

0.20

0.10

0.00
0.000 1.000 2.000 3.000 4.000 5.000
Nominal Turn-over, N, (air changes)

Figure 2-1: Efficacy for three different under-ventilation time fractions as a function of nominal turn
over.

2.1. Critical Time

Figure 2-1 shows that the efficacy curve changes its behavior when the nominal turn-over is unity.
When the nominal turn-over is well below this critical value, the efficacy is quite high and stable and
is relatively independent of the under-ventilation time fraction. Above this critical value, however, the
efficacy drops off almost linearly and depends strongly on the under-ventilation time fraction.
The nominal turn-over is dimensionless, but we can use it to define a critical time. This critical time is
twice the equilibrium turn-over time (or 2 divided by the net equivalent air change rate).
τ critical ≡ 2 /( Aeq − Alow ) (4)
As can be seen through the specifics below, variations in ventilation that happen in cycle times that are
short compared to this critical time are effectively averaged out, but cycles that are longer than the
critical time may be quite inefficient.
Linear Regime (N<1)
When the critical time is long compared to the cycle time (i.e. the nominal turn-over is small), the
efficacy approaches unity approximately linearly as can be seen by taking that limit of Equation 2:
ε  1 − flow
2
Ν2 (5)
Non-Linear Regime (N>1)
When the critical time is short compared to the cycle time (i.e. the nominal turn-over is large), the
non-linearities cannot be ignored. Equation 2 can be approximated in this regime as follows:
1 − f low
2
Ν
ε (6)
1 − f low
2

When there is signification under ventilation, neither of these approximate expressions works very
well in the critical regime near N=1.

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3. APPLICATIONS
While the previous section is quite general, we need to look at the implications for specific
applications. We will apply Equations 1 through 3 to find out how specific cases of interest perform.
As we consider these applications, we will be looking to find the size of the ventilation system needed
to provide the desired level of IAQ under a specific intermittent ventilation scenario. We will show
our results as a Ventilation Multiplier, (or fractional increase) which is how much larger the
ventilation system has to be made compared to the one that would be needed in steady-state. Part of
this increase will just be due to the fact that the system is running part of the time, but some of this
increase will be due to working in the non-linear regime and having lowered efficacy.

3.1. Notch Ventilation

Consider the case where we often want to be able to shut down the main ventilation system for one
period of time during the day to coast through some period of high cost or high outdoor pollution. (See
for example, Figure 3-1) We need to figure out how much larger the ventilation should be the rest of
the time.

Sample Notch Profile

1
Ventilation(-)

0
0:00 3:00 6:00 9:00 12:00 15:00 18:00 21:00
Time of Day

Figure 3-1: Example under-ventilation pattern (4 hour notch)

Figure 3-2 was generated using the exact (numerical) calculation. This chart plots the fractional
increase in ventilation equipment size (i.e. ventilation multiplier) that is necessary to accommodate a
notch of various sizes. The calculations were done for two air change rates (1 ACH and 0.5 ACH) and
for the case where there was no infiltration during the off period and the case for which there was 0.2
ACH of infiltration during the off period. (i.e, the average of the first two rows of Table 1.)

If the objective is to get a substantial period with the ventilation system off (e.g. at least 6 hours) and
not have to radically increase the size of the ventilation system (e.g. ventilation multiplier of 2), then
the ventilation requirement of the space should not be more than about 0.5 ACH. For low-density
spaces like offices and large homes, we can achieve this, but for high density spaces we may not.

Figure 3-2 also shows that the presence of infiltration during the notch when the ventilation system is
off can be quite helpful. For example, if the ventilation requirement is 0.5 ach and there is 0.2 ach
when the ventilation system is off, one can have a notch that is almost 8 hours long for only a 50%
increase in ventilation system capacity.

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Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

Notch Ventilation at Various Air Change Rates

6

0.5 ACH
5
Ventilation Multipliier(-)

1.0 ACH

0.5 ACH wi/ infiltration

4 1.0 ACH w/ infiltration

1
0 2 4 6 8
Under-Ventilation Time (h)

Figure 3-2: Ventilation multiplier necessary to accommodate an under-ventilation (notch) period,

with and without 0.2 ACH of infiltration.

Notch ventilation is a special case of under ventilation where the designer specifically wishes to have
no ventilation for a period of time. So we use the term “notch” to indicate a pattern where the
requirement is to have low ventilation for determined period. Otherwise, they are interchangeable
terms.

3.2. Pulse Ventilation

In air distribution systems, the heating and cooling is often interconnected with the ventilation in such
a way that it is not always possible to automatically get the right amount of ventilation for any heating
or cooling demand. In commercial buildings, this appears in the form of minimum stops for Variable
Air Volume (VAV) systems. In residential systems, this appears in the form of extra controls on
systems with outside air inlets into return plenums.

Conversely, a nominally fully-recirculating system can “accidentally” induce air exchange either
through duct leakage or by differentially pressurizing various spaces and thereby inducing extra
infiltration. If, for a period of time, one allows the HVAC system to only provide this accidental
ventilation, one could make up for any under ventilation by adding a pulse of ventilation for a while to
provide acceptable indoor air quality.

Figure 3-3 is an example of such a design. We have assumed, somewhat arbitrarily, that the cycle
time is 4 hours. We consider two cases, one in which the “accidental” (i.e. Alow) ventilation is 0.15
ach and another assuming it is 0.4 ach. We assumed the same 0.5 and 1.0 ACH requirements (i.e. Aeq)
used earlier. We then look to see what the pulse ventilation must be (relative to Alow) in the remainder
of the period to provide the necessary dilution.

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Pulse Ventilation for 4-Hour Cycle

5 0.5 ACH w/0.15 min

Ventilation Multipliier(-)

1.0 ACH w/0.15 min

0.5 ACH wi/0.4 min

4
1.0 ACH w/0.4 min

1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Under-Ventilation Time (h)

Figure 3-3: Pulse ventilation rate necessary to accommodate low ventilation rates (of 0.15 and 0.40
ACH) for remainder of (4-hour) period.

If one is considering a pulse ventilation strategy, one must have the ventilation capacity to go beyond
the steady state ventilation rate. Factors of 3 for excess ventilation capacity are common in residential
buildings and are not unreasonable in commercial buildings, if occupant diversity is adequately taken
into account. A pulse ventilation strategy can have advantages for HVAC systems that cannot fully
and independently control the ventilation and thermal conditioning such as VAV systems or a supply
air inlet system. Additional controls and extra ventilation capacity may, however, be required.

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Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

4. Discussion
As can be inferred from the examples above, various intermittent ventilation strategies can be
employed effectively, but most will quickly become impractical once the efficacy begins to drop. We
can use our model of efficacy to show what combinations of parameters are likely to work and which
are not.

Figure 4-1 displays contour lines of efficacy as a function of the two key dimensionless parameters:
under-ventilation time fraction and nominal turnover:

Efficacy Contours
10% Efficacy
5
30% Efficacy
Nominal Turn-over, N (air changes)

4 50% Efficacy
70% Efficacy
3
90% Efficacy

0
0.000 0.200 0.400 0.600 0.800
Under-ventilation Time Fraction (-)

Figure 4-1: Ventilation effectiveness (efficacy) contours for dimensionless quantities under-ventilation
time fraction and nominal turn-over.

Figure 4-1 helps identify the range of nominal turn-over and under-ventilation time fraction that one
should normally work toward. The left-most curve in the figure is the 90% efficacy contour. Anything
to the left (or below) of that curve operates at a sufficiently high efficacy that the non-linearities
inherent in the problem are minimal.

If the efficacy is high, the average ventilation over the period will be close to the equilibrium
ventilation and there will be minimal energy or sizing penalty for operating in that regime. There may
be circumstances where the penalties associated with operating below 90% efficacy may be worth the
additional costs necessary to provide the increased ventilation, but outside that regime, the efficacy
drops off so quickly that it will only be a desirable operating range for very special situations.

Assuming that the 90% efficacy level is the delineator between those strategies that are reasonably
efficient and those that will require an excessive amount of extra air, we can use our model to generate
the locus of points for different air change rates that will provide 90% efficacy.

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90% Efficacy at Various Air Change Rates

1.00
0.90
Under-ventilation Fraction (-)

0.80 0.35
0.70 0.5
0.60
1
2
0.50
4
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
Cycle Time (h)

Figure 4-2: Maximum under-ventilation time fraction possible to achieve 90% efficacy for various
cycle times and equivalent air change rates.

Figure 4-2 shows the 90% efficacy curves for five different air change rates as a function of the cycle
time and the under-ventilation time fraction. Any point that falls below the curve indicates an efficacy
above 90%. Note that for cycle times on the order of a day (24 hours), the higher rate cases do not get
much above a 10% under-ventilation time fraction, but at lower cycle times (e.g. 4 hours) the under-
ventilation time fraction can get quite high regardless of the air change rate.

Operating below 70% efficacy will greatly increase fan size and operating costs and is not generally
practical. It may, however, be quite practical if the large flows involved are serving some other
function such as for an economizer or to provide ventilative or night cooling.

Additionally, one might be willing to accept lower efficacies in exchange for flexibility when long-
cycle times are involved, especially across an entire day. Figure 4-3 shows the efficacies one can
achieve with a 24-hour cycle time.

For the 24 hour cycles shown in Figure 4-3, it is impossible to have above a 50% under-ventilation
time fraction (i.e., an under-ventilation time greater than 12 out of 24 hours) for any air change rate.
The steep drop off implies that few strategies that need to be spread over the entire day could be
reasonably effective, unless they involve only quite short periods of under ventilation.

For many applications, however, shorter cycle times are appropriate. For example, occupancy may
change in 8-hour shifts or fan cyclers may work on a 3-hr cycle time. As one moves to shorter cycle
times, there is a larger range of acceptable under-ventilation time fractions and a higher overall
efficacy, which indicates that there will be more reasonable design options to consider. The shape of
the curves may also be slightly different, but the general rule of more flexibility at lower air change
rates still applies. The spread between different air changes would continue until the efficacy
approaches its upper limit of unity.

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Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

Efficacy of 24-Hour Cycles

1.00
4 ACH
0.90 2 ACH
0.80 1 ACH
0.70 .5 ACH
Efficacy (-)

0.60 0.35 ACH

0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Under-ventilation period (h)

Figure 4-3: Efficacy of 24-hour cycles as a function of under-ventilation fraction for different
equivalent air change rates.

Maximum Under-Ventilation
12

No max
10
Under Ventilation Time (h)

0.35
0.5
1
8 2
4

0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
Cycle Time (h)

Figure 4-4: Maximum possible under-ventilation for different equivalent air change rates as a
function of cycle time.

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 Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre

At the opposite limit, the efficacy will approach zero when the under-ventilation time gets long
enough. Figure 4-4 shows this maximum under-ventilation as a function of cycle-time for different air
change rates.

The straight line on the left represents the point at which the maximum under-ventilation time is equal
to the cycle-time and thus there is no limit (although the efficacy may still be low).

4.1. Low-Density Residential Buildings

Single-family homes have quite moderate ventilation requirements compared to higher occupant
density or more highly polluted buildings. Standard 62 typically requires approximately 0.35 ACH.
Figure 4-5 shows the size that an intermittently operating mechanical ventilation system must be to
provide the necessary indoor air quality.

Figure 4-5 displays the information as a function of under-ventilation time for different cycle times. If
these data were plotted as a function of cycle time, the curve would be very similar in shape to that of
Figure 4-6 (which is based on 1 ACH instead of 0.35 ACH), but the limits would be shifted
accordingly.

The upward curvature of system capacity in Figure 4-5 for increasing under-ventilation time is caused
by the drop in efficacy as the cycle time gets longer and non-linearities begin. The low cycle-time
limits are those required to deliver the same number of air changes as the continuous system. When
the under-ventilation time fraction is low (e.g. 25% of cycle time), there is no significant curvature out
to the full 24 hours (e.g. to use notch ventilation). Thus, for low cycle times, one need only deliver the
right amount of total air changes in any configuration (i.e. any under-ventilation time fraction works).

Capacity Required for 0.35 ach

1.5
On-cycle Ventilation (ACH)

0.5

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Desired Under-Ventilation Time (h)

4 hr cycle time 8 hr cycle time

12 hr cycle time 24 hr cycle time
Figure 4-5: Capacity of intermittently operating mechanical ventilation system necessary to provide
0.35 equivalent air changes.

As a specific example of when curvature matters: if one wants to have the system on for 3 hours and
off for 6 hours, the system must be able to provide roughly 10 ten times the steady-state value (i.e. 3.5
ACH), when it is operating. Because of the increased fan size and associated operational costs such a

AIVC Technical Note 60 13

Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

situation is not usually going to be attractive when looking at ventilation alone, but might be attractive
when considered in a whole-house context. Such a situation might, for example, make sense if one
were operating an economizer or very large exhaust fans for kitchen ventilation on a predictable
schedule.

4.2. High-Density Residential Buildings

In high-occupant-density residential buildings, the necessary mechanical ventilation may be closer to 1
ACH than to 0.35 ACH. The 0.35 ACH value for lower-density dwellings was developed assuming
some default infiltration values. If one does not have this infiltration, 1 ACH of mechanical
ventilation might also be a reasonable value for moderately sized homes with high occupancies, as one
can calculated from 62.2. Figure 4-6 shows the required ventilation system capacity for 1 ACH as a
function of cycle time. If it were plotted as a function of desired under-ventilation time, it would look
similar to that of Figure 4-5 with limits shifted accordingly.

"On-Cycle" Ventilation for 1 ACH

7
Required Ventilation (ACH)

0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Cycle Time (h)

25% Under-ventilation 50% Under-ventilation 75% Under-ventilation

Figure 4-6: Capacity of intermittently operating mechanical ventilation system necessary to provide 1
equivalent air changes.

Intermittent ventilation is much less attractive in high-density residential buildings than in low-density
ones. In a large single-family home, one could, for example, use a 6-hour notch-ventilation strategy
quite effectively, but in a high-density case, one would only want to use a 2 or 3 hour notch before
decreased efficacy would require impractically large ventilation.
As a specific example, consider doing a 2-hour on and 2-hour off strategy (50% under-ventilation time
fraction) to match to some heating system cycle. In such a case, Figure 4-6 shows that one would
need 3 air changes during the on-cycle, which has about a 50% energy penalty (compared to steady-
state ventilation) for conditioning the ventilation air. (Fan power is not usually a major factor in
homes, but could vary as well, in principle)

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 Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre

4.3. Low-Density Commercial and Institutional Buildings

In office spaces and other low-density commercial occupancies, the required air change rate can often
be similar to that of single-family homes, so the curves for low-density residential buildings are
applicable. Some low density commercial spaces have slightly higher requirements because of
increased contaminant sources, so an increase to 0.5 ACH might be a more reasonable value to use.
The shapes of Figure 4-5 and Figure 4-6 would be representative of low-density commercial buildings
as long as the limits were shifted to account for the different air change rate.

4.4. High-Density Commercial and Institutional Buildings

As we move to larger required ventilation rates, Figure 4-4 shows that the longest useful cycle length
and longest useful under-ventilation time become necessarily shorter, which in turn limits design
options for intermittent ventilation.
In high density spaces such as class-rooms and theaters, this constraint can be quite apparent. For 4
ACH, intermittent ventilation may be useful as long as the under-ventilation time, or the cycle time is
kept short. Thus it might be useful during transient events like changing classes or showings, but will
not be useful for more extended periods or as part of a lead/lag ventilation calculation.

4.5. Assumptions and Limitations

Our approach can be used over a wide range of applications, but it is important to call out some its
assumptions and limitations so the user will know when care must be taken:
• This approach assumes that dose (i.e. average concentration) is the defining risk criterion. It
ignores the impact of peak and/or threshold concentrations.
• This approach assumes constant pollutant production. It may also be applicable to pollutant
production which is uncorrelated with the variations in ventilation. Care must be taken anytime a
contaminant of concern has emission characteristics that depend on environmental conditions.
• This approach is for a single, well-mixed zone. Further work is necessary to apply the general
principles to a spatially complex case.
• This approach does not address transport energy and efficiency is also not addressed. Because fans
power depends non-linearly on flow rate, transport energy will in general be larger for a given
amount of air that is delivered intermittently.
• The approach assumes that the outdoor air is free of the contaminants of concern generated indoors.
Although this approach can be used to reduce ventilation when outdoor air is unacceptable (i.e.
notch ventilation), the calculations assume that what does come in is clean.

AIVC Technical Note 60 15

Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

5. Summary and conclusions

We have developed, from first principles, a simplified physical model that allows one to determine
what intermittent ventilation pattern is equivalent to a constant ventilation level. The model relates
three dimensionless parameters: the efficacy, the nominal turnover, and the time fraction, which in
turn can be calculated from the air change rate, the ventilation target, and system operating parameters.

Ventilation standards and guidelines rarely address the topic of intermittent ventilation, so it is not
always clear when one is allowed to average out variable ventilation rates and over what period of
time one can do this. The model developed in this report can directly be used to address that issue and
we have explored several prototypical applications.

Our analysis indicates that there is a critical time for averaging the effects of intermittent ventilation.
Any variations that happen faster than that critical time are essentially averaged out; things that
happen slower than that critical time do not get averaged out and can lead to poor performance, which
means increased costs to provide acceptable ventilation.

Low-density spaces such as houses and offices typically have critical times of much more than an hour
so that there is a great deal of flexibility that a designer can use in selecting intermittent ventilation
systems to minimize energy use, protect against poor outdoor air, reduce peak demand, or optimize
interactions with the thermal distribution system (e.g., minimum stops on VAV systems in commercial
buildings or fan cyclers in residential buildings.)

Ventilation codes and standards, such as ASHRAE’s 62 series, could be made more flexible by
incorporating the results of this work. Future efforts should focus on non-steady-state and/or
multilevel modeling as well as specific application development and experimental verification.

16 AIVC Technical Note 60

 Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre

6. References

1. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 52.2. Method of Testing General Ventilation Air-Cleaning Devices for
Removal Efficiency by Particle Size. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-
Conditioning, Engineers, Inc., Atlanta, GA, 1999.
2. ASHRAE Standard 62.1, “Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality”, American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers, 2004.
3. ASHRAE Standard 62.2, “Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-rise Resdidential
Buildings:, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers, 2004.
4. ASHRAE Standard 136, A Method of Determining Air Change Rates in Detached Dwellings,
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers, 1993.
5. Persily A.K., “Myths About Building Envelopes”, ASHRAE Journal, Vol. 41 (3), 1999, pp. 39-47.
6. Sandberg M., Sjorberg M., “The use of moments for assessing air quality in ventilated rooms”
Buildings and Environment 19(4), pp 221-223, 1984.
7. Sherman, M.H. and Matson, N.E “Residential Ventilation and Energy Characteristics,” ASHRAE
Trans. 103(1), 1997, [LBNL-39036].
8. Sherman M.H., “The Use of Blower-Door Data”, Indoor Air, 5: pp. 215-224,1995 [LBL-35173]
9. Sherman M.H., Dickerhoff D.J., “Air Tightness of U.S. Dwellings,” ASHRAE Trans. , vol.104,
part 2, pp. 1359-1367 1998 [Report No. LBL-35700]
10. Sherman M.H, Matson N.E. , “Air Tightness in New U.S. Housing” Proc. 22nd AIVC Conference,
Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre; Sept 2001. [LBNL-48671]
11. Sherman, M.H. and D.J. Wilson, "Relating Actual and Effective Ventilation in Determining
Indoor Air Quality," Building and Environment 21 (3/4): 135-144, 1986.
12. Yuill, G.K. “The variation of the effective natural ventilation rate with weather conditions”,
Renewable Energy Conference ’86. Solar Energy Society of Canada Inc. pp. 70-75, 1986.
13. Yuill, G.K. “ The development of a method of determining air change rates in detached dwellings
for assessing indoor air quality. ASHRAE Transactions 97(2). 1991.

AIVC Technical Note 60 17

Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

APPENDIX: Defining Equations and Simplified Physical Modeling

We wish to be able to compare a time-varying ventilation rate with an equivalent steady state one. To
make this comparison we follow the convention, used by Sherman and Wilson (1986) and others, that
two ventilation strategies are equivalent if they lead to the same contaminant exposure. We do not
need to know what the contaminant of concern is; for a constant air change rate of Aeq, we will get a
steady state concentration of Ceq. When the concentration is not in steady state, we can use the
continuity equation to relate the instantaneous concentration time to the instantaneous change rate:

C (t ) + A(t ) ⋅ C (t ) = Aeq ⋅ Ceq (7)

where the concentration and air change rate are shown as functions of time, t, but source strength (i.e.
product of the equilibrium concentration and air change rate) is constant.
If we assume that for some period of time the air change rate is roughly constant, we can integrate
Equation 7 to get an equation that determines the concentration, C, at any time:

Aeq
C (t ) = Ct =0e− A⋅t + Ceq (1 − e− A⋅t ) (8)
A

Consider the situation in which we ventilate at a pseudo-constant, low air change rate, Alow, for a time,
tlow, followed by a pseudo-constant high rate, Ahigh, for a time, thigh. During each of the periods,
Equation 8 will be followed with the appropriate air change rate. At the end of the low ventilation rate
period, the concentration will be a new value:

Aeq
Cmax = Cstart e − Alow ⋅tlow + Ceq (1 − e − Alow ⋅tlow ) At end of low ventilation period (9)
Alow

Then, the air change rate will switch to high and the concentration will come down to its end value:

− Ahigh ⋅thigh Aeq − Ahigh ⋅thigh

Cend = Cmax e + Ceq (1 − e ) At end of high ventilation period (10)
Ahigh

In general, we are concerned about what the concentrations will be over the long term, which means
we are interested in a steady-state condition, such as that when the ventilation rate follows a repeating
pattern. (We will not consider transient cases such as those in which the system starts out of
equilibrium.) We can thus apply cyclic boundary conditions, which requires that the initial and final
concentrations be the same:

Aeq − Ahigh ⋅thigh Aeq − Ahigh ⋅thigh

(1 − e − Alow ⋅tlow )e + (1 − e )
Alow Ahigh
Cend = Cstart = Ceq − Ahigh ⋅thigh
(11)
1 − e − Alow ⋅tlow e

If this particular pattern of ventilation is equivalent to the constant ventilation case, the exposure (i.e.
integrated concentration) during the period must be equal. This would imply:

Cmax Aeq − A ⋅t Cstart Aeq

Aeq thigh + ( − )(1 − e high high ) Aeq tlow + ( − )(1 − e− Alow ⋅tlow )
Ceq Ahigh Ceq Alow
Tcycle = + (12)
Ahigh Alow

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 Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre

where the cycle time, Tcycle, is defined as

Tcycle = thigh + tlow (13)

The equations above represent a consistent description that relates the parameters and can be used to
solve for any of them given the others. The purpose of this description is to quantify the relationship
between these parameters so that one can estimate impacts or design the right ventilation system by
adjusting appropriate times and ventilation rates. The temporal ventilation effectiveness (or efficacy),
ε, is the primary quantification of this process and can be defined as follows using the parameters that
satisfy the previous equations:

Aeq ⋅ Tcycle
ε≡ (14)
Alowtlow + Ahighthigh

Once the efficacy has been calculated, however, there is no need to refer to concentrations again.
Unfortunately, the solution of these equations must often be done numerically, depending on which
parameters one knows and which parameters one needs to determine. While for some extremely
detailed problems, it might be necessary to use the above equations, we shall consider a simplified but
robust approach that leads to a closed-form solution.

Zero “Off-cycle” Ventilation

Consider the case in which the ventilation can be assumed to be zero for the “low” period of time and
then is at some constant rate for the rest (i.e. “high” part) of the time. Under such a circumstance it is
possible find a solution for the efficacy by carefully taking the limit of “low” ventilation going to
zero1 .
The minimum and maximum concentrations can be calculated as follows:

⎛ Aeq Aeq tlowe − Ahighthigh ⎞

Cmax − Ceq ⋅ Aeq tlow = Cstart = Cend = Ceq ⎜ + ⎟ (15)
⎜ Ahigh −A t
1 − e high high ⎟
⎝ ⎠

with the equivalence equation as

2
Aeq tlow Cstart A
Tcycle = + tlow + eq Tcycle (16)
2 Ceq A\ high

The efficacy is then

Aeq ⋅ Tcycle 1 − (tlow / Tcycle ) 2 Ν ⋅ coth( Ν / ε )
ε= = (17)
Ahigh ⋅ thigh 1 − (tlow / Tcycle ) 2

where we have defined the nominal turn-over, N, as follows:

AeqTcycle
Ν≡ (18)
2

The form of these two expressions makes it clear that the effectiveness is a function only of the
nominal turnover and the fractional time that the ventilation is in low mode, tlow/Tcycle. The main text
explores the form of this equation in some detail. The efficacy itself can never be larger than unity so
that the “high” ventilation rate is always higher than the equilibrium rate.

1
The limiting process and subsequent manipulations are too lengthy to be reproduced here.

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Efficacy of Intermittent Ventilation for Providing Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

Non- Zero “Off-cycle” Ventilation

The equations developed above assume that there is no ventilation rate during the “low” ventilation
period. In many instances there will be some non-negligible ventilation, such as infiltration or
accidental ventilation and its presence can make a non-trivial difference; and we wish our general
model to be able to deal with these situations.

Let us separate the air change rate into two parts: a “low” part that is pseudo-constant for the entire
period and another part that follows the pattern of the previous section (i.e. is high for a period of time,
but zero otherwise.) Thus we subtract a term from both sides of the continuity equation to make the
left side look the case from the previous section.

Most of the time when the ventilation rate is “low” it is significantly below the equilibrium ventilation
rate, Aeq, and we shall assume that is the case here. We thus treat the “low” part of the ventilation as a
perturbation on the system. Instead of considering that new right hand term as a function of time, we
take its expectation value over the period In any solution to the problem the expectation value of the
concentration is the target concentration, Ceq. The continuity equation then becomes the following:

C (t ) + ( A(t ) − Alow ) ⋅ C (t ) = Aeq ⋅ Ceq − Alow ⋅ C (t )  ( Aeq − Alow ) ⋅ Ceq (19)

This looks just like our original continuity equation with a transformed set of coordinates. Thus our
earlier solution for the zero off-cycle ventilation still holds as long as we use the transformed set of
ventilation rates that have all had the “low” ventilation rate subtracted from them. Specifically, we
can use our dimensionless solution for the efficacy as long as we used a modified definition for the
nominal turn-over:

( Aeq − Alow )Tcycle

Ν≡ (20)
2

Once the value of the efficacy is determined, whatever set of coordinates that is convenient may be
used so we have chosen to use equations. 1-3 as our fundamental description in the body of the text.

20 AIVC Technical Note 60

The Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre was inaugurated through the International Energy Agency
and is funded by the following seven countries:

Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway and United States of America.

The Centre provides technical support in air infiltration and ventilation research and application. The
aim is to provide an understanding of the complex behaviour of the air flow in buildings and to
advance the effective application of associated energy saving measures in both the design of new
buildings and the improvement of the existing building stock.

Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre Tel: +32 2 655 77 11

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